NEWS / RELEASE

Vietnam have kept alive their hopes of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup after coming from behind to beat Chinese Taipei 4-1 at the My Dinh National Stadium on Thursday evening.
The Vietnamese were given a real scare when Chinese Taipei took the lead through a Wu Chun-ching strike after just seven minutes, but it did not take them long to respond and braces from Le Cong Vinh and Nguyen Van Toan were ultimately enough to hand them maximum points.

With the victory, they are now just two points behind second-placed Iraq in Group F of the 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 AFC Asian Cup joint-qualifiers, with both sides meeting in the neutral venue of Tehran next week in what will be a decisive encounter.

Yet, it did look as though an upset was on the cards on Thursday after Wen Chih-hao’s miscued shot landed right at the feet of Wu, who proceeded to lash a shot past Tran Nguyen Manh and put the visitors ahead.

Nonetheless, right from the restart, Vietnam managed an instant reply as Pham Thanh Luong forced his way down the left before floating in a cross that was met by Cong Vinh with a superb volley into the back of the net.....